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Pet Shop Boys Taking 'High Tech' Show On The Road

Pet Shop Boys will play European festivals this summer as part of the campaign for their 10th album "Yes" (Parlophone), including a headlining appearance at Denmark's Roskilde Festival according to keyboard player Chris Lowe.

It was also confirmed today that Pet Shop Boys will headline the U.K. Latitude Festival in Suffolk on July 17. The other headliners are Grace Jones and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

The U.K. synth-pop duo, honored with the outstanding contribution BRIT award last month, released the Xenomania-produced "Yes" yesterday (March 23) in the U.K. and follows with a U.S. release on April 21 via Astralwerks, its first album with the label. The comeback single "Love Etc" entered the U.K. singles chart at No. 14 on March 22 with sales of 13,600, according to the Official Charts Co.

"We're playing T In The Park in Scotland, which we've not done before, Oxegen in Ireland and Latitude," Lowe tells Billboard. "We're also headlining Roskilde this summer which was actually the first festival we ever played [in 1997], so that should be good. Because we started off just making records, we never imagined playing live at all. Eventually we started playing tours and then we ended up playing festivals, its all been very gradual."

Roskilde Festival is held outside Copenhagen July 2 to 5. Slipknot, Oasis and Coldplay also headline the festival, which has capacity of around 100,000. Pet Shop Boys previously headlined in 1997 and 2002. Their appearance at this year's festival has yet to be officially confirmed by organizers.

As well as the previously announced appearances at Ireland's Oxegen (July 11) and Scotland's T In The Park (July 12), the duo has sold-out U.K. dates at London O2 arena (July 19) and Manchester Apollo (July 18). The shows, booked by Helter Skelter, are promoted by Live Nation.

"I think the idea is to be more high-tech and more multi-media than the last [tour] show," says Lowe. "It's not going to be a costume drama but there might be a few wigs."

"We're touring in Europe this summer then we're going to North, Central and South America in the autumn," he adds. "Then in the new year we're going to South East Asia and Australia, then we're going to be coming back over [to the U.K.] and carrying on with our music for the ballet."

The duo is currently working on a score for a ballet set to open at London's Sadler's Wells in 2011.

U.S. dates are not yet confirmed, but are being booked by the William Morris agency.

"They are just talking about it now," says singer Neil Tennant. "On our last tour we sold out Radio City Music hall really quickly. We played there on our first tour in 1991 so nothing's really changed."

Tennant notes that Pet Shop Boys has long had a following among electronic and dance music fans, particularly in L.A.

"We always had this following in Los Angeles which to a certain extent we still do," he says. "Years ago I met Monica Lewinsky. I introduced myself and she said 'oh yeah, I know who you are, I grew up in LA in the '80s.'"